Early Childhood Chapter 7 8 Psyc 311 Jen

Early Childhood Chapter 7 -8 Psyc 311 Jen Wright

body development • Eating habits • 2 -6 year olds eat less than infants and older children. • “Just right” phenomenon – picky eaters! – Like: salty/sweet foods – Dislike: bitter/sour foods • Learning what is appropriate and not appropriate to eat • Early signs of disgust – Infants show “disgust” facial expression – Strong food preferences

role of disgust • Protection against dangerous substances – Poisonous foods often bitter – Rotten foods often sour – Disgust expression functions as warning • Protection against contamination – Children not sensitive to contamination until early childhood • Protection against deformity and disease

role of disgust • Higher-order disgust • Physical contamination social contamination – 7 -8 year olds “cooties” • Physical contamination moral contamination • Examples?

obesity • Early signs of obesity as young as 2 years old • Obesity rates among 2 - to 5 -year-olds – rose to 14% for the years 2003 -2006 – compared with 5% in 1980 • Need less food than did as an infant – Problem forcing child to “clean their plate” – Especially w/ desert as an incentive! • Attraction to salty and sweet foods • Other contributors?

consequences • Type II diabetes – 50% of some children in low-income areas – http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Rutaw 8 OJ 9 Wo • Bone development problems – Stunted hip/leg bone growth • • Cardiovascular disease HBP, High cholesterol Lower IQ Obesity programs for toddlers? – http: //abcnews. go. com/Health/Story? id=5602922&page=1

developing cognitive skills • Memory development – Still better memory for content than context • No memory of when/where something is learned • Increase in “executive function” • Impulse control • Delayed gratification • Perseverance • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=6 Ej. Js. Pyl. EOY • Ability to override current intentions given new information • Color/shape card sorting game

sort by color

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• What is the driving force behind this development? • Brain maturation – Plasticity • Cognitive exploration – Piaget – Vygotsky

brain development • Brain is 95% of adult weight by 6 years of age. – Much of this is due to myelination. • Rapid growth and death spurts as brain restructures – High degree of plasticity • Thickening of corpus callosum – Bi-hemospheric communication – Better, faster thinking – More coordinated actions • Frontal lobe development – Not completed until late adolescence/early adulthood

Piaget • Child as Scientists • Children learn on their own • Children are intrinsically motivated to learn • Language and education play only minimal roles

• Sensorimotor – birth to 2 years • Pre-operational – 2 to 7 years

Vygotsky • Children as Apprentices • Child learns through social interaction • Children are socially motivated to learn • Language and education play central roles

• Children as apprentices – guided participation

scaffolding • temporary support that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities • aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process

zone of proximal development (ZPD) • The skills that we can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently. • ZPD applies to the ideas or cognitive skills we are close to mastering as well as to more apparent skills. • Examples?

announcements • Ch 7 -8 q’s and study guide due Wednesday – Prep debate • In-Class Debate #2 Friday – Instructions have changed • Each group gets a presentation and rebuttal • Mid-semester Evaluation – Online survey – PLEASE complete!

theory of mind • The ability to understand the existence of mental states in the minds of others – Desires – Beliefs – etc. • Strongly explanatory and predictive. • Yet, non-tangible.

• Desires – “I want…” – children talk about early (2 years) – simple constructs – concerned with the person – How we want the world to be – similar to emotions (non-representational) • Beliefs – “I believe that…” – don’t show up in speech until 4 -5 years – more complex constructs – concerned with the world – How it really is – representational

Maxi “false-belief” tasks ? ?

succeeding at the false belief task… • Requires understanding that Maxi • has a mental state (belief) that is different from the child’s mental state. • has a mental state (belief) that is different from reality. – Beliefs come apart from reality • they can be false. – Desires don’t.

• So, how do children first learn about beliefs? • When confronted with a behavior they can’t otherwise explain, children have no choice but to appeal to a (false) belief. • Example: – Katie is looking for her kitty. Her kitty is in the garage. Katie is looking for her under the piano. • Why is Katie looking under the piano? – She is looking under the piano because she thinks the kitty is there. • Evidence of this: – Children will use belief states to explain behavior (like Katie’s) before they will use them to predict behavior (like Maxi’s).

• They will also use beliefs when pushed (after easier explanations have been used). • Experimenter: Why does Jason cry? – – – Child: Because he was scared. Experimenter: Why else does Jason cry? Child: He thought it was a rattlesnake. Experimenter: Was it really a rattlesnake? Child: No. • Experimenter: Why is Ann smiling? – – – – Child: ’Cause she likes cookies. Experimenter: Why else is Ann smiling? Child: ’Cause she’s happy. Experimenter: Why else is Ann smiling? Child: She thinks she can eat it? Experimenter: Can she really eat it? Child: It’s not real.

Appearance-reality tasks

• What do all of these tasks have in common? • Executive function • The ability to override current information with – New information – Past information – Additional information • The ability to hold 2+ thoughts in mind and compare them.

• Emergence of the conscience: • moral awareness- sense of good vs. bad – Self-regulatory emotions • Guilt/Shame • Pride • Disgust – Inhibition of bad behavior, promotion of good behavior • Awareness of expectations/reactions of others • Important distinction between shame and guilt. • What is the difference? • Why do we call these emotions “moral emotions”?

emotions and self-development Emotions are important in the emergence of selfawareness: • Self-efficacy – awareness that you can affect events in your surrounding • Self-control – learning to modulate emotional reactions • Self-concept – episodic memories – external vs. internal characteristics

empathy • May be more important for moral socialization than negative emotions • Global distress – Emotional contagion • Egocentric empathy (2 yrs) • Non-egocentric empathy (3 yrs+) • Cognitive empathy (middle childhood) – Abstract perspective-taking

play • Play: a pleasurable activity that is engaged in for its own sake • Theorists have focused on different aspects of play: – Freud and Erikson: play helps child master anxieties and conflicts, satisfies our exploratory drive • Play therapy – Piaget: play advances cognitive development; children’s cognitive development constrains the way they play – Vygotsky: play is an excellent social setting for cognitive development

importance of play • Cognitive development – Appearance – reality shift (make believe) – Theory of mind – Imagination • Social competence – Empathy – Role-playing • Emotional regulation

types of play • Sensorimotor play • behavior by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their sensorimotor schemes • Practice play • the repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned or mastered • Pretense/symbolic play • occurs when the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol • Social play • play that involves interaction with peers • Constructive play • combines sensorimotor/practice play with symbolic representation • Games • activities that are engaged in for pleasure and have rules

levels of social complexity • Parallel play – Parallel aware play • • Simple social play Complementary/reciprocal play Cooperative social pretend play Complex social pretend play – Meta-communication about play

Parenting styles • Authoritarian: restrictive style in which parents demand obedience and respect • Parent places firm limits and does not allow discussion • Parent rigidly enforces rules but rarely explains them • Children are often unhappy, fearful, and anxious • Authoritative: encourages children to be independent while placing limits and controls on actions • Extensive verbal give-and-take • Parents expect mature, independent, age-appropriate behavior • Children are often cheerful, self-controlled, and self-reliant

Parenting Styles • Neglectful: parent is very uninvolved in child’s life • Children feel that other aspects of the parent’s life are more important than they are • Children tend to be socially incompetent, immature, and have low self-esteem • Indulgent: parents are highly involved but place few demands or controls on the child • Children never learn to control their own behavior and always expect to get their way

Two Dimensions: • Responsiveness • Demandingness

Gender • Sex: biological classification of male or female • Gender Identity: the sense of being male or female • Gender Roles: sets of expectations that prescribe how females or males should think, act, and feel

Gender • Two basic types of theories Ø Gender differences are built-in – Psychoanalytic: unconscious urges/tensions – Epigenetic: biological/genetic underpinnings Ø Gender differences are learned – Behaviorism: behavior is conditioned by reward/punishment – Cognitive: learned schemas (same as “restaurant” schema) – Socio-cultural: socialization, internalizing norms

• Parental Influences: – Mother’s Socialization Strategies: • Mothers socialize daughters to be more obedient and responsible than sons • Mothers place more restrictions on daughters’ autonomy – Father’s Socialization Strategies: • Fathers show more attention to sons than daughters, engage in more activities with sons, and put more effort into promoting sons’ intellectual development

• Peer Influences: – Peers extensively reward and punish gender behavior – Greater pressure for boys to conform to traditional gender roles • Children’s Groups: – Children show preference toward same-sex playmates by age 3 – From age 5 onward, boys are more likely than girls to form large groups and participate in organized group games – Boys engage in rough play, competition, conflict, etc. – Girls engage in “collaborative discourse”